Exhalt
by hjea
Summary: Kaylee, Simon and River enjoy their shore leave together.


Disclaimer: They're Joss'. I borrowed. All praise to him.

_Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!_

_Bird thou never wert,_

_That from Heaven, or near it,_

_Pourest thy full heart_

_In profuse strains of unpremeditated art._

_****_

_Higher still and higher_

_From the earth thou springest_

_Like a cloud of fire;_

_The blue deep thou wingest_

_And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest  
_

_---------------  
_

They walked through the field, hands held and swinging gently between them. River trailed someways behind, but on this day Simon was content to let her wander on her own, picking flowers for a crown. It was still early morning planet-time, but the sun had already warmed away most of the morning mist, leaving only a sprinkling of dew. Kaylee's face rivaled the sun for its brightness.

"Isn't this something?" She asked, turning her head around in awe, eyes drinking in the sights.

"It's fairly spectacular." Simon agreed, grinning unabashed into her face.

Kaylee smiled warmly in return and tugged at his hand. "Come on."

They walked further still into the tall grass, the dew dampening their trousers as it brushed against them.

Suddenly in front of them, a group of birds rose into the air, their clear songs emphasized in the morning still. Kaylee stopped dead in her tracks and looked up at them in wonder, "Will you look at that," she breathed, eyes fairly crackling with delight, "skylarks!"

She tore her eyes away from them to look back at Simon. "Can you even imagine? Them living here wild like this, I've only ever seen one in a cage."

Simon could only shake his head in amazement, struck completely dumb by the unexpected display of nature. Kaylee squeezed his hand and turned her face back to the birds, diving and wheeling through the sky, their voices still ringing out clearly and brightly.

"I wonder what you call them?"

"What do you mean?" Simon asked curiously.

"Well, cows and horses come in herds, I know wolves was packs, I wonder what you'd call larks."

Simon shrugged, "I don't know, a flock I suppose."

"Exaltation."

The pair turned round their heads, surprised to see River standing right behind them, flower wreath askew on her head, gazing with longing, like them, up at the sky.

"What was that _mei mei_?"

"An exaltation. An exaltation of larks." The words rang from her mouth like bells, each chiming a chord in the clean air.

Kaylee mouthed the word to herself, savoring the feeling before she once again turned her sights above. Simon smiled wistfully, having long ago gained confidence in his sister's store of knowledge.

"- Kaylee, Simon, you there?"

The crackling voice broke through their calm, and Kaylee blinked as if in a daze, looking around puzzled for a moment before she dug the comm out of her pocket. "Yeah Cap'n?"

"Our job's just about finished here, so we'll be preparing to leave mighty soon."

"'Kay Cap'n, we'll be along in a jiffy."

She pocketed the comm again at looked sadly up at Simon. "Guess we'd better……. "

"Yeah."

Simon turned back to where _Serenity_was waiting, leading Kaylee and River along behind him. River stopped suddenly, and the two older pair looked back at her.

"What is it?" Simon asked his sister concernedly.

"They're dying."

She was looking down at her crown now resting in her hands, the flowers indeed already wilting in the morning sun.

Kaylee moved away from Simon and over to River, gently reaching out a hand to caress the other girl's hair. "That's alright sweetie, you just set them down right here. Soon enough they'll be soil, make room for new flowers to grow."

The words comforted River, and she knelt to place the flowers reverently down on the ground.

"From old comes young," she whispered to the earth, "living eternity."

River stood up, and grinning mischievously, ran ahead, leaving Simon and Kaylee to once again clasp hands, swinging them between them as the last lark sang his song behind.

END.

----------------

__

Teach me half the gladness

That thy brain must know,

Such harmonious madness

From my lips would flow

The world should listen then – as I am listening now.

-To a Skylark

By Percy Bysshe Shelley


End file.
